Sunday night kicked off a huge week with three Eastern Conference home matches in seven days and nine points on the line.
Fortunately, it got off to a great start with the 4-0 win over D.C. United in front of 18,871 fans. The team played great. We could not have asked for a better way to start this stretch. It was one of our best performances of the season and it came at a great time. We need to start making up ground on the teams sitting atop the East and we want to build a bigger gap on the teams behind us.
Ideally, this game will provide some momentum going into the ultra-important match vs. Sporting KC on Wednesday. We gutted out a tough 0-0 draw up at Livestrong Park last week, so it should be a closely contested battle.
SECURE YOUR SEATS FOR WEDNESDAY'S MATCH AT BBVA COMPASS STADIUM
It’s never easy getting results when you play three games in seven days. Sometimes you have to be reasonable and practical about expectations when players are put in tough circumstances, but given our home success and the positive feeling around the club, we are thinking about maximum points this week.
I know that the players appreciate the great fan support we are getting at BBVA Compass Stadium. Many of them have commented to me about how it gives them a big home-field advantage. I hope you can keep it coming during these big matches. We are currently averaging 21,287 fans per game this year.
A few points of interest from Sunday’s result:
- The win extended our home unbeaten streak to 17 games, dating back to June 2011. That’s a whole MLS season without a loss at home.
- We are 5-0-3 in league play at BBVA Compass Stadium.
- Our overall record is 5-2-5 since opening BBVA Compass Stadium on May 12.
- Will Bruin netted his 10th goal of the year, tying him for 3rd in MLS. It was also his 15th career goal, tying him with Stuart Holden for fourth all-time in Dynamo history. The Dynamo have not had double-digit goal scorer since Brian Ching did it in 2008. Bruin is threatening the club’s goal record for a season, which is 13 and was set by Ching in 2008.
- Ching’s goal was the 80th of his career, tying him for 12th in MLS history.
- Tally Hall recorded his seventh shutout of the season, topping last year's season total of six.
- Boniek Garcia notched his first Dynamo goal and it was his first career goal off a header.
Everyone is interested in knowing about the Geoff Cameron situation. Here it is in a nutshell: We are prepared to transfer him if the right deal is in place. The key here is the right deal. He is one of the top young American players, and that needs to be taken into consideration. Negotiations are on-going to see if such a deal can be reached. It’s hard to predict the outcome at this time. I expect the situation to play out one way or another in the next 2-3 days.
That’s it for now. I’ll check in again soon. In the meantime, follow me on Twitter @chriscanetti for more regular updates.
